Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The printer needs a name

I think it's time we named our printer. Really. The printer is an integral piece of my business world, so you might think it would be inappropriate to personify machinery. But here's the thing: it has a personality. Whims. Moods. Good print days, bad print days. It needs to eat, and it needs a doctor sometimes, and it even argues with me. It has a memory, and it has a temper. And so, I name my printer.....Peter. Peter Printer. I love alliteration. And now I can properly YELL at it when it causes me grief! Does it need a middle name too? You know how your parents always yelled your first & middle names both when you got into trouble? I'm pretty sure Peter's middle name would be a curse word, however, and that would be inappropriate in a business(ish) blog.

Can you guess what I've been doing today? Printing! I'm getting the last of everything organized and shipped for my Denver weekend. It's a bit of a guessing game when I'm attending a new show as to how much of what I should ship. Some shows have a larger proportion of experienced beaders than others, and for those I take a higher proportion of the more complicated kits. Other shows have enthusiastic beginners, and I'm their beading enabler, taking oodles of the easy kits. For this show, I'm throwing everything in boxes and taking it all. What the heck! I'm more heavily stocked than usual since I've been gradually building up inventory in anticipation of the the June-Sept season where I'm doing shows left and right.

I'm down to the last set of patterns that need printing - I'm watching the little bars on Peter's display panel that show how much toner I have left very carefully, praying they hold on for a few more (dozen) pages....come on, Peter, you can do it!!